Pokerstars - Didn't award full prizepool... - MTT Community

wex_69 · 05-20-2012, 11:13 AM

I'm not the type of guy that complains about a bunch of things and ends up posting about it for the hell of it, but I really believe this issue merits a post.

It started yesterday on Pokerstars when I decided to play the 25k FPP satellite tournament to the 125k FPP satellite tournament which leads to the 10K scoop ME. After winning a seat in the 25k FPP satty, I was at first disappointed when Pokerstars notified me that although I can unregister from the 125k satty, I would only be awarded a ticket for another 125k FPP trny. They told me that once I registered for the original 25k fpp trny that a message pops up saying that if I won a seat, would have to play it (which I did not see...). But no where in the actual lobby of the tournament does it say that. I just found it was not clearly stated that I wouldn't be able to unregister and keep the FPPs. Anyways, that's not the main issue in this post.

The real issue is what happened when I ended up having to play in the 125k FPP tournament. You can't see the completed tournament in the lobby now, but fortunately I was smart enough to take a screen shot of it yesterday.

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/11/prize1b.png/

After busting the tournament I was not (and still haven't been) awarded the prize of 38,541 FPPs. After emailing Pokerstars about the issue, this was the response I got.

Thank you for your email.

The 38,542 FPP award was paid to 3-10th place. You busted out of the tournament before late registration was completed, therefore your finishing place changed. You placed 12th in this tournament and missed the prize spots.

If you need any additional assistance please let me know.

To which i replied that this made absolutely no sense..

I'm well aware what place I finished in this tournament. The prize pool indicates that 11-14th gets 38,541 FPPs and i was NOT credited for this amount. If you do the math and you will see that places 3-10 awards a total of (38,542 * 8) = 308,336 FPPs and the 2 seats for the winners award FPP value of 2 * 643,750 = 1,287,500. Combined with FPP prize for places 3-10, that is a total of 1,287,500 + 308,336 = 1,595,836 and the prize pool is 1,750,000 (14 entrants at 125,000 each). Therefore, 1,750,000 - 1,595,836 = 154,164 FPPs was NOT awarded. This is supposed to be awarded to places 11-14 which is 38541 FPPs (154,164 / 4).

While this may be just a bug in their system, they still failed to pay out almost $2,500 worth of FPPs.

It just gets one to start questioning their system and how often PS "forgets" to pay out players, especially for those people who grind 20+ tables 8 hours a day.

Anyways, this whole thing just pissed me off especially how I wasn't awarded $615 worth of FPPs for a tournament that I originally didn't even want to play in the first place.

jiggybluff · 05-20-2012, 12:53 PM

stars will probably make this right, or atleast the used to

thess123 · 05-21-2012, 11:51 AM

more people probably played, upping the amount of seats given away to the ME...

twonine29 · 05-21-2012, 12:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by thess123

more people probably played, upping the amount of seats given away to the ME...

Probably true. Not sure why the screen shot doesn't include "Current Prize Pool" tho.

ty71087 · 05-21-2012, 12:18 PM

ya think thess probably is right here. Is still something to be looked into as this could cause further confusion in these types of events.

Ontario_Tory · 05-21-2012, 12:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by thess123

more people probably played, upping the amount of seats given away to the ME...

No -OP's right, something's off here... Request the tournament summary from the client:

PokerStars Tournament #561106919, No Limit Hold'em Super Satellite
Buy-In: 125000 FPP
14 players
Total Prize Pool: $20600.00 USD
Target Tournament #2012050403 Buy-In: $10000.00/300.00 USD
2 tickets to the target tournament

Tournament started 2012/05/19 14:30:00 ET Tournament finished 2012/05/19 15:50:54 ET
1: Roo21t (Venezuela), (qualified for the target tournament)
2: jdtjpoker (Mexico), (qualified for the target tournament)
3: He3HaiKa (Russia),
4: Flush_Entity (Canada),
5: lehout (Netherlands),
6: UhhMee (Canada),
7: JohnyK91 (Greece),
8: Chojjasd (Malta),
9: cal42688 (Mexico),
10: shaundeeb (Mexico),
11: Se7enTr3y (United Kingdom),
12: wex_69 (Canada),
13: GotURead (Netherlands),
14: Mejwon (Poland),

There are no personal statistics because you did not play in this tournament.

So 14 people paid. If he didn't get the payout, there's an issue. I'm sure stars will make it right, that's their usual pattern.

OT

wex_69 · 05-22-2012, 05:36 PM

Just to give you guys an update, they ended up crediting the FPPs to me.

However, the real issue here is the fact that I had to realize in the first place that I wasn't awarded the prize and then email PS about the issue. I'm sure that if I didn't email them, that I never would have been credited with the FPPs.

The only reason I realized was because it was FPPs, it was a relatively large amount and I wasn't multitabling. If I was playing a bunch of cash tournaments and didn't end up receiving a prize that I was actually entitled to, I would never realize this. I don't think its fair to have players have to audit their own results after each session to ensure they were properly compensated and contact support over disagreements.

Ontario_Tory · 05-23-2012, 09:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wex_69

Just to give you guys an update, they ended up crediting the FPPs to me.

However, the real issue here is the fact that I had to realize in the first place that I wasn't awarded the prize and then email PS about the issue. I'm sure that if I didn't email them, that I never would have been credited with the FPPs.

The only reason I realized was because it was FPPs, it was a relatively large amount and I wasn't multitabling. If I was playing a bunch of cash tournaments and didn't end up receiving a prize that I was actually entitled to, I would never realize this. I don't think its fair to have players have to audit their own results after each session to ensure they were properly compensated and contact support over disagreements.

I don't disagree that it's a crappy thing to have happen, but at the end of the day you're basically saying "Pokerstars, don't make mistakes." It was a mistake, not a malicious act by them, and fortunately they don't make a lot of mistakes like this.

If they refused to make it right, you've got a real case, but they did make it right.

The bigger issue, in my opinion, is that the support response you received initially showed that they (yet again) didn't read / understand the question before responding. Stuff like that makes me crazy...

OT

**Dantes** · 05-23-2012, 10:57 AM

I heard some of the scoop $700 hyper sit n go sats were awarding seats to a $27 tournament instead of $2k. eek

Aek203 · 05-23-2012, 12:14 PM

That's a tough FPP satellite.

j00hndayton · 05-23-2012, 11:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dantes

I heard some of the scoop $700 hyper sit n go sats were awarding seats to a $27 tournament instead of $2k. eek

in b4 refunds, kinda funny tho this is exactly what they don't want, people reaffirming there belief its "rigged". Still amazed at the amount of people who think its rigged.

ME - "why would they rig a tournament, they tell you the rake when you sign up."

THEM - "well if they give all the hands to the bigstack the tournaments over faster"

Otompsett · 05-24-2012, 09:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dantes

I heard some of the scoop $700 hyper sit n go sats were awarding seats to a $27 tournament instead of $2k. eek

It happened to me with the 74 hypers, only noticed something was up when my account was down a lot more than I thought and requested my last 20 tourneys through the client to be emailed to me. Was getting put into the $27 low scoop instead.

Emailed stars and had a reply within half hour and was assured all would be sorted within a few hours, which it was, though I didnt receive a follow up email which was a little disappointing. Would have been good to get an email saying exactly how much I was shorted and verifying the refund etc.

pig4bill · 05-25-2012, 02:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ontario_Tory

I don't disagree that it's a crappy thing to have happen, but at the end of the day you're basically saying "Pokerstars, don't make mistakes." It was a mistake, not a malicious act by them, and fortunately they don't make a lot of mistakes like this.

If they refused to make it right, you've got a real case, but they did make it right.

The bigger issue, in my opinion, is that the support response you received initially showed that they (yet again) didn't read / understand the question before responding. Stuff like that makes me crazy...

OT

How can they make that sort of mistake? They don't have cubicles full of nerds hunched over keyboards figuring out who won what. Payouts should be programmed into the software. This kind of mistake should be very troubling.

lamma · 05-25-2012, 02:47 AM

Several years ago when playing in Absolute Poker I found that they were a missing payment in 1 MTT so I emailed them and got paid. Who knows it won't happen again so better check it every time.

Ontario_Tory · 05-25-2012, 11:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pig4bill

How can they make that sort of mistake? They don't have cubicles full of nerds hunched over keyboards figuring out who won what. Payouts should be programmed into the software. This kind of mistake should be very troubling.

Maybe I'm biased as I work in the IT world and know that no matter how much you test, a specific confluence of scenarios can come together to produce an unintended (and not tested) consequence. Bugs in software happen...

My opinion is that it's not THAT there was a bug, but HOW stars handles / fixes it. (And how they fix the bug so that others are not affected).

OT